Wow, two totally different posts from Mark and I, listing the Pros and Cons of each approach to trading with a family. Here's a reference. Mark's a seasoned pro who runs his own business (had his own website before I even knew what the e-mini's were) and trades for a living exclusively, and has a family as well. I'm a journeyman trader who's doing pretty well with my trading, works at a night job and is "free as a bird" when it comes to family. READ - Absolutely not outside stress! When you're as accomplished as Mark, you can anticipate trading sans J.O.B., until then, my vote says the family comes first. Best Regards, Jimmy
JimmyJam, Completely agree...family comes first and because of such... I usually trade no more than 3.5 hours per day on average and spend the rest of the day with my family with an occassional peek at what the market is doing in the afternoon trading session. Yet, prior to the family, it was common practice for me to trade almost 10hrs per day as a single guy. Having a family changes everything, I now take 1 1/2 hours naps each day just to re-energize whereas before the family... I took no naps and maybe took a 15min lunch break. Yesterday while trading on the laptop...toddler built a river around me that was made out of Legos while the spouse was taking a shower. He said I was King Kong and his prisoner. Today toddler is at day care and I'm trading from my desktop workstations (not laptop) enjoying soccer (England vs Trinidad) but doing very little trading. Mark
I am probably nuts because I am about to start trading full-time from home and we have a newborn on the way in about 2 weeks LOL.
I'm in the process of building a house (buying one already under construction) and I had the builder go back and rip all the sheetrock out of what will be the new office. (the office is in the basement on the far east-facing wall, the Master and guest rooms are on the second story bordering the south and western-most walls) They'll be installing an extreme amount of insulation between all the studs on the two interior walls and the floor joists to reduce noise, and Dynamat noise reducing mats on the entire ceiling, which is then going to be hand textured over. I'm not married, and I don't have kids. But I plan to at some point, and this is basically my attempt to make trading from home compliant with having children. I figure that if I can't hear them, then I hope someone calls my phone or bangs on the office door if the rest of the house catches on fire. :eek: Outside of the soundproofing though, I'm either going to have a full-time nanny or Mommy is going to have to cover the day shift for me... No way I can run errands or wipe asses during market hours.
i have 4. my husband and i trade together and homeschool our children. it works, but it is not easy. we started together after our 2nd child was born and have been doing it now for about 6 years. we are successful ... and still happily married ... lol good luck to you. if you want this badly enough, you can do it. the key is remaining flexible ... 'bazi